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P. J. HERRiGK. GL A8P FOR GLOVES 0R SHOES.

(NoModeL) Patented Apr. 4. 1882.

v UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK J. HERnIoK, on NEW BRITAIN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TO H. o. NOBLE, on SAME PLACE.

CLASP FOR GLOVES OR SHOES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 255,857, dated April 4, 1882,

' Application filed June'24, test. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRnNK J. HERnIoK, of New Britain, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Clasps for Shoes or Gloves, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in clasps for shoes, gloves, and other articles, in which clasp the lever is of peculiar form and is hung in a peculiar manner.

The object of my invention is to so form and hang the lever that the parts to be fastened may be drawn tightly together by said lever and secured in place without any substantial let up or backdraw. I attain this object by the mechanism illustrated in the accompany ing drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a plauview; Fig. 2, a side elevation; Fig. 3, a view of the inside of a strap, showing the manner of securing the claspplate thereto. Fig. 4 is an end view of the lever and clasp-plates. Fig. 5 is asection of the same on line was of Fig.4 with the claspclosed, and Fig. 6 is a like view with the clasp open.

A designates the clasp'lever; B, the claspplate to which it is secured; and'U, the companion plate, having an eye, a, to receive the clasp-lever A. The clasp-plate B is provided with lugs 11 b, between which the lever is pivoted on pine. This clasp-lev'erA is an anglelever with the inner faces of the two arms standing at about right angles to each other, as shown. The short arm d has a straight inner face, and the lever is pivoted near the middle of this short arm, so that the straight face extends both ways in the directionof its length beyond the sides of the pivot-pin e, and when the lever is closed, as in the position represented in Figs. 1, 2, 4, and 5, the face of this arm inclines slightly in such a direction as to throw the plate 0 down upon the plate B and to a point on the short arm which is below the pivot, whereby any strain upon the clasp will hold the clasp-lever firmly in place. By taking hold of the long arm of the clasplever and throwing it backward the short arm lifts the eye aof plate 0 over the lugs 12 b and releases it. To fasten the parts or close the clasp, the eye a of the plate 0 is slipped over the end of the clasp-lever A when said lever is in the position shown in Fig. 6. The lever is then closed, in doing which the eye first slides down into the corner or angle of the long and short arm of the clasp-lever, in which position it is carried forward around the pin 0, to firmly draw the parts 13 and 0 together, until the inner face of the short arm passes the perpendicular. when the strain and the position of said face cause the eye a to slide downward against the plate B and firmly hold the clasp in place, as before explained. I

In order to make the parts operate as described, it is not onlynecessary that the inner face of the short arm be straight and stand slightly on the incline when closed,-as shown, but the pivot-pin c or axis of the lever must be located in the short arm, so as to bring the straight face inside of the pivot-pin when the clasp is closed, otherwise there will be considerable backdraw; but when constructed as shown and described there will be no substantial backdraw.

A notch (see Figs. 5 and (i) is formed in the outer corner of the short arm (1, into which notch the bridge that connects the lugs b b fits when the clasp is closed, as shown in Fig.

5, whereby the short arm is made of the greatest possible length. By pivoting the lever through the middle of the short arm it is carried backward fartherthan it would be possible to do if pivoted through the long arm, whereby the eye-plate is moved a considerable distance after it has been slipped down into the junction of the two arms, in which position a good leverage is obtained to draw the parts firmly together. This cannot be the case when the leveris pivoted through the long arm, or at thejunction of long and short arms.

I am aware that a pivoted hooked lever for drawing two parts together by throwing one part over the center on which the lever swings is old in many fastening devices, the earliest example of which that I know of is found in the patent to Timothy Taylor, No. 7,030, J anuary 15, 1850, and a more recent example is found in patent to R. Olingen, No. 103,142, May 17, 1870 5 but all of such prior fasteners, so far as I know, receive the eye in a sort of hook or recess on the short arm, which seats it in sub stantially the same position on thelever, after it has passed the center pin, that it occupies in going over it, and the lever was so pivoted that the axis was in the longarm thereof, near its junction with the short arm, and thereby the lever first strains the parts tight and then allows them to let up or draw back to quite an extent-sometimes to such an extent as to let back nearly all that the lever has drawn up. All such prior fasteners are hereby disclaimed. In my clasp the parts are firmly locked in place by the strain on the plates B 0, while at the same time there is substantially no let up of the draw in passing the deadcenter. This result is accomplished by the straight inner face of the short arm, and so hanging it with the straight face inside of the axis that the eye moves or slips over said straight face in fastening and unfastening. The novelty of my clasp resides in constructing the parts so as to accomplish the last above named result.

Upon the ends of plates B and G, I form a cross-plate, h, connected to the main plates by an ofl'set shank, n, the two forming a T-shaped end. The shank n is somewhat rounded to adapt it to rest in a round hole, and is so 0&- set that the cross plates and main plates are substantially parallel, but about the thickness of the leather apart, as indicated mostclearly in Fig. 2, in which the broken lines indicate the leather to which the plates B and G are secured. Fig. 3 shows theinside of a piece of strap with a plate secured thereto, and also the form of hole adapted to receive the same.

This consists of a round hole, r, with a simple.

slit upon the side opposite that on which the strain comes. The cross-plate is inserted in this hole endwise, the slit allowing the leather to give sufficiently to get both ends through, as shown. Substantially the same T-shaped ends have been heretofore applied to buckles. The clasp herein shown has its plates curved to adapt it for use on shoes; but they may be made of other forms, if desired.

In order to avoid crowding the lines, the drawing is represented on an enlarged scale. The clasp may, however, be made smaller. or larger, as occasion requires.

1 claim as my invention- The combination of the eye-plate C, the claspplate Byand the peculiar lever A, pivoted by a pin which passes through the short arm near the middle ot'itslength, and havingthe straight fled.

FRANK J. HERRICK.

Witnesses:

JAMES SHEPARD, O. E. MITCHELL. 

